3 months ago

Summary Judgment
was actually a disappointment. I often found that I wanted to kill a creature that was either blocking, or using some type of special ability or had vigillance, and the requirement on Judgement to target a TAPPED creature was often a problem. I think that
Grotesque Demise
might be a better card. Maybe 4x
Mortify
and 3x
Grotesque Demise
then sideboard out the Demise for
Bring to Trial
against decks that run large creatures.

My second change of heart was for
Ill-Gotten Inheritance
which I though would not be a very powerful card for it's cost but in the draft turned out to be a complete pain in the ass. I am not sure how well it will do in multiplayer but in single player having as many of these as possible on the battlefield makes a big difference, especially as you get your opponents closer to dead and you can pay the 6 mana to deal 4 and heal 4. That's an 8 health swing in power that can make a big difference.

I am still not sure if they are right for the deck you are building but they are certainly worth considering.

3 months ago

I looked at the Orzhov deck and I think that
Teysa Karlov
is the key to making it work if you want to use sacrafice effects to make it worth it.
Until she is in play, killing your own creatures for bonus effects, even when you are getting afterlife triggers, will usually leave you behind because you wont have much card draw.
I would focus mostly on cheap creatures with afterlife, and avoid creatures that force you to sacrifice to get good value out of them.

Hero of Precinct One
could be useful but only if you run mostly multicolored spells and that might not be worth it to aid this single card.
Resolute Watchdog
might be a good sideboard in case the enemy continues to kill off your Teysa/Vindictives.
Priest of Forgotten Gods
seems like she is part of a combo in an edh deck, just waiting to happen, but if you run a ton of low cost afterlife creatures, which you are, she might work great. Ideally she would kill two of your creatures right after they block or are blocked, and then draw you a new creature!

-[Instants]-

Bladebrand
seems like a fun way to punsh the other player for blocking one of your small attackers, I think if used well it will add a lot of value to your little attackers, making the enemy afraid to block them.
I would opt for
Mortify
over
Final Payment
or
Expose to Daylight
but sideboard the daylights for pesky artifacts.
Undercity's Embrace
lets the enemy decide what they sac, and you will basically never meet the requirement to get the extra health, so it isn't very good unless like hexproof becomes a problem?
I am not sure about
Grotesque Demise
and
Summary Judgment
I feel like judgement is cheeper and will deal with most low cost creatures and may handle some bigger ones, so I would opt for that, but Grotesque will help with creatures that have afterlife, if you are running against a mirror. With our play group, you most likely wont be.

-[Enchantments]-

Ethereal Absolution
too expensive, only sideboard in if somehow you are losing to late game 1/1 creatures or if late game your afterlife creatures are just too weak to finish the enemy, my guess is that it's not going to help much in time.
Ill-Gotten Inheritance
too in single player and in multiplayer makes you a huge target. If you find in multiplayer games that late game you are widdling away at people but cant ever find a way to attack, this might work. My guess is that
Kaya's Wrath
/
Priest of Forgotten Gods
+
Vindictive Vampire
would do better.

-[Sorceries]-

With your life gain, recursion, and death trigger effects, I feel like
Kaya's Wrath
will often leave you in better shape than it will others. I would run 4 of them however you also need to be careful. If you boardwipe with little or no cards in your hand, other decks will probably rebuild more quickly than you can. Instead, if you are planning a boardwipe, save a few good creatures in your hand, even if it means taking damage for a round or two, then boardwipe.
I wish
Bankrupt in Blood
was instant speed, but running a few might be a good idea to help you recover your handsize after boardwipes.
Mortify
is better than
Bring to Trial
unless you are having troubles with enemy enter the grave effects, or idestructable. Could be a sideboard card.
Consecrate / Consume
is iffy. If you are having troubles with big mean creatures it's a nice card. You could take a hit from the creature for 1 round, then kill it and gain back that life. The ability to use it to draw a card instead id alright, but not great.
Revival / Revenge
seems pretty fun with this deck. You can use it to get back cheep afterlifers (especially
Imperious Oligarch
or
Orzhov Enforcer
) or, if you draw it late game, you can use it to swing the tide of a game quite a bit.

-[Lands]-
This land base looks pretty solid, I would only caution that when running 4x
Orzhov Basilica
and 4x
Orzhov Guildgate
you risk getting caught with a very slow start, which is sad when you have such low cost creatures.
Ideally you would want to play a Guildgate rnd1, a basic land rnd2, tap for a 2 cost creature, then on turn three play a second 2 cost creature and then a basilica. So that on turn four you can play a four cost creature.

3 months ago

It depends on if they cast
Summary Judgment
before or after the combat damage step. Usually in that scenario, it would be correct to cast it before damage, so I would assume that's what your opponent did, but it is technically possible to do so after damage. If you attacked with
Ball Lightning
, and your opponent says something like "I cast
Summary Judgment
on your
Ball Lightning
before damage", that's perfectly legal in the rules. Your
Ball Lightning
will take 3 damage and die before it gets to deal combat damage.

As an aside, you can link cards by putting them in double square brackets like this:

4 months ago

This is the current deck I'm running because I don't have all the cards that I want for this and i've gone 25/2/0 in MTG Arena so far - I'm thinking of switching this up to UBR but this idea can really just work for any colors you prefer, I just Like the combo with white because of return creatures I need and low cost damage spells for creature removal similar to red but triggers at different times.

It's been 5 years since I've last played and I'm really enjoying this block so far in standard - any help is much appreciated.

As of release for Ravnica Allegiance Day one this is what I currently have for it, I'm just so sick of everything being so creature aggro based I figured i'd put together something to mess with people's heads if they play that way.

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